Saturday 10 December 2011

The Machine Stops Notes for Today


 Today, human survival is completely dependent upon a system of production and distribution which is entirely beyond the comprehension, and hence control, of the individual citizen. In every country of the world, complex technologies are used to supply machine-manufactured goods for distant markets. The situation was foreseen by E.M. Forster in his novella The Machine Stops. First published in serialised form in a magazine during 1909, the story reveals much about life in the twenty-first century that might otherwise pass by unnoticed.  

Production of basic necessities
When the story was written mass production of the basic necessities of life was in its infancy. Food, clothing, furniture, furnishings, tools, containers and all manner of artefacts were designed, produced and consumed locally. Goods were produced and consumed in common, using resources taken directly from the land, coupled with inherited wisdom and ways of working. As tools and equipment wore out, they were repaired or replaced within the local community. Today, virtually every item of food we eat, clothing we wear, and artefacts we use, has been designed and produced by people unknown to us. All we can do is to select from the range on offer, dumping waste into the local environment. We are being kept in luxury. But we are increasingly powerless to control what is made available to us and our families. Furthermore, legal controls restrict our choices of healthy foods and medicines – for our own good and/or that of powerful pharmaceutical companies.

Transport and communications
Mass systems of transport and communications were yet to be developed in 1909. The idea of flying across the world on a commercial airline in order to visit a relative was pure science-fiction fantasy. A century later it is conceivable that Skype and video conferencing could replace virtually all human contact.

Religion and the arts
Forster’s imaginary nightmare world is dominated by the mechanical Machine. Equal amounts of daily necessities are doled out systematically on an equal basis, as individuals sit in their identical little boxes underground. In the resultant spiritual and cultural desert there is no room for a Supreme Being, no artistic endeavour, no story of human existence. All is scientific, mechanical, devoid of life or meaning.

Child care and education
The most untenable aspect of Forster’s imaginary Machine is the notion that children could be reared in nurseries without love. Had Kuno in reality been removed to a nursery at birth, there would have been no affective relationship between mother and son in adult life. In this circumstance, adults, in the unlikely event that they survived, would be mere automatons, socially and physically brainwashed into their allotted status in the ‘brave new world’ of the Machine, not able to choose for themselves between right and wrong behaviour. When viewed objectively, this is the most terrifying aspect of the situation we face today. As children are removed from the family home from an increasingly earlier age, for increasingly long periods, they are given into the care of relative strangers who pass through their lives like characters on the flickering screen. When taught to respect nobody and to love nobody but themselves, many end up with little respect for anybody or anything.

The political economy
Gone are all notions of citizenship, of consumer sovereignty, of civil rights or of democratic government. In Forster’s story, as is the case in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and in George Orwell’s 1984, the use of money has disappeared. No mention of it is made in any of the stories. Policies are determined by the New World Order of the ‘Committee of the Machine’. The evolution of the ‘Committee of the Machine’, the Controller, or ‘Big Brother’ has been monitored and predicted by many perceptive writers, including contributors to The Social Crediter dating back to the 1930s. In his recent book, Dr. Kerry Bolton draws together the contributions of past authorities, bringing them up to date with the present. In Revolution from Above, he demonstrates that:

“the supposed rivalry between Marxist-inspired movements and capitalism has always been an illusion. Marxism, Communism and liberalism have been and continue to be exploited by the forces of international capitalism to further their global agenda, despite their surface disagreements. Dr. Bolton shows that the ultimate goal of capitalism is to create a worldwide collectivist society of consumers, and Marxism is merely one means of attaining this. He traces this idea back to Plato, through the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the French Revolution, and Communism, and examines the evidence for the existence of a shadowy network of bankers who control a large portion of the world’s political and economic power. He then discusses the various instruments this network uses to maintain control, such as tax-exempt foundations and think tanks. Dr. Bolton also reveals how capitalist governments actually worked closely with Communist regimes and, in fact, frustrated genuinely anti-Communist efforts during the Cold War. He discusses the impact this has had on Western society, resulting in such trends as the sexual revolution and the promotion of drug use. Dr. Bolton then brings us up-to-date by discussing the role of the recent "Arab spring" in these ongoing developments. One will never be able to view modern history the same way again after reading Dr. Bolton’s arguments and examining the supporting evidence.

“K. R. Bolton holds doctorates in Historical Theology and Theology; Ph.D. (Hist. Th.), Th.D. as well as in other areas. He is a contributing writer for The Foreign Policy Journal, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social and Political Research in Greece. His papers and articles have been published by both scholarly and popular media, including the International Journal of Social Economics; Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies; Geopolitika; World Affairs; India Quarterly; and The Initiate: Journal of Traditional Studies. His work has been translated into Russian, Vietnamese, Italian, Czech, Latvian, Farsi and French.”
        Kerry Bolton Revolution from Above, (Arktos, 2011).

2012
Study reading of the three dystopias (The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and 1984 by George Orwell) might help to illuminate the intention and drift of bureaucratic controls over all aspects of life – health, education, farming, travel, news, communications, economic and political affairs. With the introduction of a world-wide system of carbon currency, ordinary people will be relieved of the necessity to make rational, moral choices of any kind (for some information about what is meant by ‘carbon currency’ see article by Patrick Wood reproduced in current issue of The Social Crediter). All will be decided for them. Many individuals living today have been so brainwashed by the educational processes, the barrage of deceptive electronic  ‘news’ services, and the all-pervasive in-service training programmes in every trade or profession, that the brave new world of the Machine will seem like a natural evolution into Nirvana.

It does not have to be that way if there are enough individuals who see things differently.

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